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PART ONE
Chapter One
Evie Marshall pulled her car into the parking area next to Clan Stonefire’s main gate and willed her stomach to settle. Sure, she was nervous, but it wasn’t because of the dragon-shifters flying overhead or the glares she knew she’d face once she stepped onto their land. She’d worked the last seven years with the Department of Dragon Affairs down in London, and visiting a dragon clan’s land wasn’t anything new.
Yeah, right. Who was she kidding? Today was different from her other visits. She was here to seduce a dragon-shifter, and not just any dragon-shifter, but Stonefire’s clan leader, Bram Moore-Llewellyn.
That was her goal, anyway. Whether she’d succeed or not was yet to be seen.
Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of failure. If she couldn’t convince Bram to allow her to stay with the dragon-shifters then the dragon hunters would kidnap her, and maybe even kill her. Their warning last week had been clear: stop working for the Department of Dragon Affairs and join them or be hunted down as if she were a dragon herself.
Inhaling in and out repeatedly, she tried to pull herself together and push aside her fear. The British government had brushed off the threat and wouldn’t help her, so she’d do whatever it took to seduce Bram and earn a place in his clan. Rumors said he was civil with humans, and if she could make him care about her, the alpha dragonman would protect her.
Focus, Evie. Right. Glancing at the clock on the console, she realized she needed to get a move on. From her past experiences down south with Clan Skyhunter, she was aware that while dragon-shifter clan leaders liked to keep her waiting, she had damn well better be on time or face a scolding.
After giving her hair one last smooth and plumping up her slightly too small breasts, Evie grabbed her duffel bag and exited the car. As she closed the distance between her car and the front entrance, it took everything she had not to stumble or twist her ankle on the uneven gravel. She’d worn heels maybe ten times in her life, and despite the hours of practice she’d done over the last week, she wobbled more than strutted with each step.
Shit. Things weren’t off to the greatest of starts.
Careful to walk slowly and not fall on her arse, she headed toward the stone structure about twenty feet away, which served as the clan’s security checkpoint. Since employees from the Department of Dragon Affairs, or DDA, weren’t allowed to drive onto Stonefire’s land, Evie went to the smaller entrance and called out, “Hello?”
Soon, a tall man with light blond hair and the ever-impressive thick, twining dragon-shifter tattoo on his muscled arm approached. She might’ve worked with the dragon-shifters for years, but her heart rate always kicked up when she saw one. They must have some kind of special gene which made them all gorgeous. This man was no different. The way his low-slung jeans clung to his fit body made her a little wet.
If she were lucky, Bram would be a little less attractive. The last thing she needed was to go instantly wet in his presence and start thinking with her lady parts instead of her brain.
The blond-haired dragonman’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Ms. Evie Marshall with the Department of Dragon Affairs?”
Careful to keep her face calm and collected, despite the butterflies banging around in her stomach, she nodded and handed over her identification papers. “Yes. I’m here to do my post-birth interview with Melanie Hall and to further investigate the death of Caitriona Belmont. My office should’ve made all of the arrangements for my three-day visit.”
The dragon-shifter gave her an unreadable glance before he thumbed through her documents. No doubt, he could hear her heart banging in her chest, or even worse, smell the fact she found him attractive. While he was probably used to the latter, she hoped the former wouldn’t raise any suspicions about her reasons for being here.
Only when he nodded and held out the papers for her to take back did she let out a mental sigh of relief. He must believe she was merely here for an inspection.
She retrieved her papers, and then he turned and motioned to another guard a few feet away. “Dacian over there is your assigned guard for the duration of your visit and he’ll take you to see Bram.”
At Bram, the clan leader’s name, her heart gave a few extra hard thumps inside her chest. In less than half an hour, she would finally meet the man who would determine her future.
“Thank you,” she said and smiled over at the dark-skinned man named Dacian.
And damn, the defined muscles peeking out from his shirt combined with the striking planes of his face only confirmed her theory of the secret dragon-shifter hotness gene. Her chances of Bram being less attractive so she could focus were looking slimmer by the minute.
Despite her best smile, his face was guarded as he motioned with his head for them to start walking. Without so much as a word, he turned around and headed down the worn dirt path.
Hmph. Stonefire’s reputation about being friendlier with humans than Skyhunter wasn’t looking good so far. She bloody well hoped Bram was nicer than Skyhunter’s leader, Marcus, or she would most definitely have her work cut out for her.
Since Dacian was already several feet ahead of her, Evie tried her best to both walk quickly and sway her hips in what she hoped was a seductive manner. Her two-inch heels were less than ideal for a lengthy walk to the main living area, but first impressions were important. She would gladly risk sore feet if it meant Stonefire’s leader would take notice of her.
Of course, her feet were the least of her problems. Evie had sacrificed a social life, hobbies, and even love to earn a place with the DDA, but those sacrifices now paled in comparison to the task that lay before her. In order to stay alive, she would have to give up not only her body, but also her freedom and her future.
~~~
Bram Moore-Llewellyn attempted to sign his name on the last bit of paperwork for the DDA inspection when he heard a “whoosh” followed by a little baby hand slapping against his desk. With a sigh, he tossed his pen aside and turned wee baby Murray around in his lap before raising him to eye level. “What did we say about knocking papers off the desk?”
Murray looked at him with wide eyes and drooled.
Bram chuckled. “Right,
I know you’re bored, but the inspector should be here any time now and she needs to see you’re doing well.”
The baby waved his hands around and started to squirm, clearly not caring about any DDA inspection. Bram lifted the boy above his head and said, “Just another half hour or so, lad, and I’ll drop you off at my brother’s house where you can play with my niece. You like Ava, remember?”
Murray made some incomprehensible baby noises and Bram took that as a yes. He lowered Murray down and cuddled him against his chest. His inner dragon pushed to the front of his mind and said, We should keep this young. He is ours.
He wanted to agree with his dragon, especially since Bram’s chances of having children were less than one percent because of infertility issues, but it wasn’t what was best for the lad. He deserves someone with time to take care of him. We are too busy.
His dragon huffed and Bram resisted a sigh. He’d been having this inner argument for months now. Taking care of a clan with nearly three hundred dragon-shifters was enough of a challenge, but it became infinitely harder to manage his people when his dragon became grumpy and uncooperative.
So much for Bram being bloody good at controlling his beast.
There was a knock on the door and Bram looked down at Murray. “All right, lad, I bet that’s the inspector. Be on your best behavior, okay?”
While all the boy did was blink as he gnawed on his fist, Bram hoped the undertone of dominance in his voice would do the baby some good. Like most young, Murray had good days and bad.
Bram hoped today was one of the good ones or no doubt the inspector would make his life hell. Hate was too tame a word for what Bram felt about being beholden to the British government for his clan’s survival.
He reached the door and opened it to find one of his guards, Dacian, filling his front stoop. Bram nodded to signal all was well, and Dacian stepped aside. His actions revealed a red-haired human female wearing a light blue blouse that hugged her small breasts, and her wide hips were encased in a black form-fitting skirt. Her dark blue eyes reminded him of the Irish Sea.
As she glanced between him and the baby, surprise flickered and Bram fought a smile. According to his contacts, this woman had been dealing with Marcus, Skyhunter’s bastard leader, for years and would never expect a clan leader to answer a door with a baby in his arms.
However, the surprise in her eyes was gone in an instant, replaced with a smile and a look of heat that took both the man and the dragon by surprise. Even his cock twitched at the fiery look.
The redheaded female gave him a slow once over and he came back to his senses. Sure, she was pretty and plump with striking dark blue eyes, but he didn’t need this right now. Between selecting a male from his clan to breed with the next human female sacrifice and doubling his clan’s efforts against the recent spate of dragon hunter attacks, he didn’t have time to bat off a female’s attentions. When Bram wanted sex, he found it. He didn’t need a mate.
